J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board Welcomes Laura Skandera Trombley, President of Pitzer College
Media Note
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board welcomes new member Laura Skandera Trombley, who was sworn-in on February 11, 2013 in Washington, DC, by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs J. Adam Ereli at the Board’s first quarterly meeting of the year. President Obama announced Trombley’s appointment in December.
Laura Skandera Trombley has served as the president of Pitzer College since 2002. She is a professor of American literature and a distinguished Mark Twain scholar. She has authored five books, most recently Mark Twain's Other Woman (Knopf, 2010). Previously, she served as dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs at Coe College, and as assistant provost at SUNY Potsdam, receiving early tenure. She was a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (research associate) in American studies at the Universitaet Eichstaett in Germany from 1985 to 1988. Dr. Trombley received a BA and an MA summa cum laude from Pepperdine University and a PhD from the University of Southern California where she was named the Lester and Irene Finkelstein Fellow for Outstanding Humanities Student. She is a member of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Governing Boards.
Pitzer College, in Claremont, California, is an undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution, which has been the national leader in Fulbright Fellowships per thousand students for eight years. Pitzer College has also been the top producer of Fulbright awardees among all U.S. liberal arts colleges in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board was established by the U.S. Congress to supervise and promote the Fulbright Program as well as establish worldwide policies. Serving three-year terms the board members, who come from academic, business, cultural and public life, also select the students, scholars, teachers and others to participate in the educational exchanges. Appointed by the President of the United States, the 12-member board meets quarterly.
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government's flagship international exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 318,000 participants from over 150 countries with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
Media Contact: Catherine Stearns, StearnsCL@state.gov , 202-203-7025
PRN: 2013/0155